This picture is my 9 month old daughter Emma. She is playing with toys and specifically baby dolls. One of the dolls actually say "Baby's first doll". I feel like giving infants especially girls, baby dolls to play with is basically engraving into their minds that women's roles are to take care of children and only that and not to be a powerful women. I actually didn't not buy these dolls for my daughter, they were gifts and I encourage her to play with a variety of toys. Gender based toys molds a child's gender instead of letting them decide what gender they want to be. If an infant that was a boy was to be playing with the baby doll it would be absurd and immediately taking away and replaced with a block or ball because those are boy toys.
7 comments:
I love the basics of this photo. This picture is not unrealistic in anyway. This occurs everyday for male and female infants and are forced to play with gender specific toys and not always given the choice of gender neutral or boy toys throughout their lives. The simplicity of this picture speaks volumes because it is straight forward, very real, and not staged.
I like how this photo is simple but really tells the truth about gender stereotypes start with infants. It is true that when you have a child the first thing that is bought is pink for girls and blue for boys. Even as infants children have their toys chosen for them so that their parents feel that they will be feminine or masculine.
This photo definitely shows the meaning of gender socialization. Especially since the little girl is wearing all pink with a pink bow and playing with pink baby dolls. I really liked how she wanted to show how we gender stereotype children in our society using toys. Most people would never think of giving their infant son a doll or their daughter a toy truck. She also makes a good point in her explanation how certain toys teach girls and boys certain skills. Just like how a kitchen set teaches young girls how to perform motherly duties or Legos teach boys how to be creative.
The picture, “Encoding Women's Role Starting with Infants”, depicts how gender roles are taught from the time when the child is born. For example, the gender codes say that girl stuff has to be pink and boy stuff has to be blue as shown in this picture. Also this picture shows how there is an influence in what toys a child plays with, the girl is playing with dolly’s. If she was a boy he would most likely have trucks. Also, if you’d notice the little girl has a pink bow in her hair and her ears pierced. Parents will do distinctive things to babies’ appearances to set apart their sex. For girls, bows and earrings make the baby feminine. If it was a boy, he would have a blue baseball cap. It just shows that we are taught these gender roles; we are not born with them. Humans made all this up, colors, toys and accessories are not from nature. The babies don’t care what they wear, as long as they are warm. However, as soon as they start getting older and their mental capacity starts to retain and understand these little details, the gender codes become the unspoken law to them.
I totally agree with what your saying and displaying in this photo. I have also chosen to adopt a personal concept of giving my children, when I have them, neutral toys with neutral colors, sounds, etc. I don't want to force my children to choose at such a young age, I'm pretty sure that society will make the gender choice for them, but I won't enable it by giving gender based toys.
This photo is very simple and to the point. It shows the true meaning of gender stereotypes and it's very true that these roles are put on children at such a young age. In reality, its the parent's of the children that lead their children into lives of stereotypes. If from an infant age a mother gives her little boy dolls to play with, he may grow up being more nurturing and compassionate. But a lot of parent's fears is that if they give their son barbies or dolls to play with, they will turn out day, which is completely unrealistic. The way the young baby looks so happy with the dolls all around her and dressed in all pink clothes shows that even at an infant age, the child is living up to the gender stereotypes set out for her.
I love this photo. Emma is so cute. It is true that by playing with dolls you are teaching her the roles she should play in life. They should make dolls for boys and maybe there would be more caring fathers in the world today. Most young parents are doing it on their own, and the father isnt around. He should have played with more baby dolls. Alot of men will also be scared to touch the baby or hold the baby because it isnt something that they grew up doing.
Post a Comment